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So, from your comments, it seems like most of you enjoyed Kell On Earth, right? While I was watching, I kept comparing it to Bravo’s other inside-fashion show, The Rachel Zoe Project. Obviously, both are about highly successful, stressed out women with small empires, but while Rachel’s show is about fashion, Kelly Cutrone is about business. This point was driven home constantly by Kelly and her staff: when Kelly yells at her young assistants that this isn’t college, this is million of dollars of people’s money, she’s honing in on why these seemingly mundane tasks are portrayed so dramatically. This is big, big business with a lot at stake. Rachel Zoe never really brings up the point that her clients pay her thousands of dollars; it’s just left unsaid.
Image: Bravo/David Giesbrecht
What both shows do have in common is sleep-deprived, incredibly unhappy looking staff. While Rachel Zoe’s Taylor provides all the sour face we could handle in The Rachel Zoe Project, Kell On Earth has an entire office full of pissed-off looking people, who all appear to be asking themselves: “I left my cheap rent and easy lifestyle back home FOR THIS?” In one scene, Andrew offers Ativan (an anti-anxiety medication) to stressed out Stephanie S., with the rationale that it’s okay to take because it’s Fashion Week.
Image: Bravo/Barbara Nitke
Another layer to Kell On Earth is Kelly’s role as a single mom. Her office is several floors down from her actual apartment, affording her the chance to sneak away for a minute or two to see her daughter Ava. Ava herself has picked up a thing or two about fashion shows, saying she “won’t dress up” for an upcoming show if she’s “in the third row.” Yikes! This definitely makes the show much more interesting, since Kelly says outright in the opener that “everything” she does is for her daughter. Rachel Zoe on the other hand, appears to be in business as some kind of spiritual fashion calling and is happy to blow through her credit cards in order to fulfill some kind of deep-seated need for clothing from the 60s. That’s definitely part of Rachel’s charm, but it’s very different to Kelly’s far more practical outlook.
What did you think of the show? I loved it, so I want to hear your thoughts!
Who in the right mind wants to expose the behind-the-scenes world of a business on a reality TV show?
This is the suicide and that is the difference between the Rachel Zoe Project and Kell on Earth shows; you don’t see everything that goes on in Rachel’s ‘Stylist to the stars’ business. If you were a perspective client, would you go to Kell to produce a fashion show? Probably not.
I agree with a previous comment that Kell’s office is not a professional environment; so from the looks of her disorganized/incompetent staff, Kells’ rates must be cheap vs. her competion.
On another note, I’m disappointed that Bravo didn’t rerun the finale of Launch my Line.
Can’t wait for Maria’s review of this week’s RH-OC.
Link to the funny or die videos for Rachel Zoe. This actress is super talented. Bananas talented.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/a2371e5cc8/rachel-zoe-outtakes
Agree, Nancy – great topic for discussion. Thanks Maria.
The main difference I see is that Zoe is a total fake and Kell is completely genuine. Zoe’s business may well be genuine, but nothing in that show is substantial. It’s all, “bananas, die, shut it down, OMG, another B-bag, must have, bananas, die, shampoo rinse repeat.” Compare that sense to Kell who is telling some actual truths to us as the viewer and to her beleaguered staff.
Zoe fakes all this stupid drama for the cameras, or else she doesn’t in which case this fantasy is her reality. Scary. Zoe’s persona comes across as a ghost image of an actual human pre-occupied with small shiny objects and access to elites. Kell is all red meat and no apologies. If her daughter doesn’t want to dress up then she can stay home, “life is unfair.”
For example. I stopped watching Zoe after season one because I never clicked with it. I did tune it to a marathon for season two since absolutely nothing else was on the tube and it rained for like 10 days straight, pretty sure here it was season two. Anyway she’s walking around in a dress that shows her grossly emaciated body. Everyone agrees that she can’t wear that. No one ever says, hey eat a damn sandwich once a month and maybe you can actually wear a dress that you went bananas over and screamed “die, must have” and bought for thousands of dollars because you thought you could actually look presentable in it. It was like watching a bunch of aliens. If you starve yourself to the point that you can’t wear actual clothes then maybe you should address the issue of how your body looks and not the way press reports make you feel about your body. Hello?
Kell on the other hand is showing you how the sausage is made, and tells us straight-up that fashion is not pretty. She’s abusive to staff, but she states that 98% of these people come to New York to succeed only to realize they can’t hack it. Sink or swim. Your choice kids. Let me know what you decide and I’ll let you know if you’re fired or hired. Hint: you’re fired. Fashion is the fantasy they come to her to experience, her business the reality they face once they get off the bus. When she got nasty in that debut show it seemed like honest frustration because the simplest most basic things were completely ignored; not just with the list, but she also goes after that photog for shooting underage models naked. “You say I’m a bitch like it’s a bad thing.”
I laugh at Zoe not with her. Did you ever see those funny or die videos? Spot on, hilarious satire because they are so true. I’m glad I invested the time watching Zoe’s vanity project just so I couldappreciate the spoofs. “Armani loves plums, let me get a few for him.” Kell on the other hand, I laugh with her. I would never laugh at any of these women out of fear that I might actually die. I never said you were a bitch Kell. Swear.
This is a great topic for discussion, Maria. I like both shows and agree with your take on how the two women approach their businesses so differently. Kelli seems to live in the same world as most of us, while Rachel’s on her own planet.
I’ve worked in PR and know what a pressure cooker it is. The clients are rarely happy and they all expect to be the top priority and complaints are always running downhill. STILL — can’t anybody run a PR business without making life miserable for everyone around them?
I think a woman, especially a mother, has an opportunity to foster a work environment that puts people first. I like Kelli, but am disappointed when her workplace turns out to be just another stereotypical meat grinder full of yelling and slammed phones and people having nervous breakdowns over the printer.
I agree with Becky. Life is too short. Who wants to spend most of their day yelling or being yelled at, day after day?
Reality – fashion week and all the fashion industry is hurting, and hurting bad. People aren’t spending all that money on that crap no matter what Bravo and all the Housewives want you to believe.
Escapism pure and simple.
Haven’t seen this show but I have worked in high profile public relations and it is no trip in the park. The apprentices need to wake the frig’ up and realize that is the cost of doing that type of business. No sympathy for me – long weekends, crisis, media that gets it wrong, prima donnas and all that – glad I’m out of it personally as life is way too short.
I can completely relate to what Abby said, my husband left last night on a flight to Boston to see his sister who is having brain surgery today. I wasn’t able to join him and I can’t think of much else. These shows and web sites are an attempt to keep my mind off the horrible things but for the people on these shows, it is their life. Its clothing for crying out loud! It is just what people were meant to use to keep warm and for modesty. It has turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. In Rachel’s case, she is obsessed with fashion, if I’m reading Kell right, it is a business meant to support her child. Its obvious by the way each of them dress and talk about fashion. Rachel is so passionate about it while Kell’s comments are complimentary to the designers, she doesn’t seem to care that much about fashion.
On a side note, I was surprised by the attire in Kell’s office, Kell, her staff, and partners where so casual and dressed down, it seemed like a completely unprofessional office. When that designer came into the office, I would have been embarassed by my staff’s appearance. Even the partners who greeted him looked like they just rolled out of bed and threw on flip flops. Professional attire equates to a professional attitude and more productive staff, studies have proven that. They don’t have to look like bankers but they shouldn’t look like teenagers at a slumber party either.
Contradictory, yes but if you really think about it, who cares what people are wearing, it is about how we treat one another and health, happiness, family…. but I have to say, it is still fun to watch.
While it’s fun to watch, it’s also really ridiculous behavior. Fashion shows may be THAT important to that many people — enough to raise THAT level of control and anxiety — but in the grand scheme of things, really? It continues the pattern of mythifying and genuflecting at values that are pretty whacked. It makes me feel like we are witnessing the fall of Rome in NYC.